The invention relates to a device for storing and selectively playing disc-shaped information carriers, comprising a magazine for accommodating the information carriers in layers arranged around a virtual centreline, a playing unit or units for receiving a selected information carrier, and controllable transport means for holding or releasing a freely selectable information carrier and transporting it between an individual storage location and the playing unit. The term "playing" should be given a wide interpretation within the scope of the invention such that it does not purely refer to playing in the usual sense of the word, information present on the information carrier being read out, but also to information being written onto the information carrier, which may or may not be blank at that moment.
Such a device may be used especially for the storage of information carriers having the CD format, comprising various types such as music CDs. CD-ROMs, CDR(ecordable)s, and CD-I(nteractive). Such a disc-shaped information carrier in itself is capable already of accommodating a large quantity of information, but it is insufficient for dealing with the vast amount of data as found in archives, libraries, and the like. If this medium is chosen for the storage of these data, the latter are inevitably to be spread over a large number of individual discs. The need then arises for an efficient storage of and an adequate access to the individual information carriers.
To provide for this, German Patent Application No. 36 21 790 describes a device of the kind mentioned in the opening paragraph which is often referred to as a (CD) jukebox or (CD) changer. This known device comprises a rectangular housing with four magazines for the storage of information carriers, such as magnetic tapes and optical or magnetic discs, which magazines are arranged in comers of this housing. The individual information carriers here lie in columns one above the other, said columns being arranged around a centreline of the magazine. The information carriers leave a free space on a diagonal of the housing, providing access to an intermediate space between the magazines where two playing units are positioned on either side of a primary manipulator which cooperates with a secondary manipulator in the core of a magazine so as to transport jointly a specific information carrier between its storage location and one of the playing units. The secondary manipulator for this purpose lifts the selected information carrier from its position, moves it towards the primary manipulator, to which the information carrier is transferred through the space left free in the magazine. The primary manipulator then brings the information carrier to the playing unit. These steps are carried out in reverse order for returning the information carrier after use.
Not only does this known device utilize the maximum storage capacity of the magazine only partly, because at least one column position must be left open therein at all times for the transfer of an information carrier from the one to the other manipulator, but the take-over of the information carrier between the two manipulators also leads to a loss of time and an additional risk of malfunctioning in the transport of the information carrier between its storage location and the playing unit.